Philosophy as transformative practice: a proposal for a new concept of philosophy that better suits philosophy education

Abstract

The source of the following considerations is the observation that academic philosophy at universities does not fit well with philosophy education processes, e.g., those at school. Both sides seem to be separate from each other. I assume that the two areas rely on two very dif‐ ferent concepts of philosophy. To work out a concept of philosophy more appropriate to the educational context, I methodically apply the practical turn to our philosophising in very dif‐ ferent contexts. Moreover, I elaborate that it is precisely the modern scientific paradigm that underlies philosophy as scientific practice and that the former represents a problematic con‐ striction of philosophising in educational contexts. For where the ideal is objective scientific knowledge — from which everything subjective has been removed — there can be no deeper transformation of the subject through philosophy. My thesis is that philosophy is better suited to the educational context as transformative and not as scientific practice. As a consequence, the question arises as to whether the study of philosophy on teacher training courses needs a new impulse in the direction of philosophy as transformative practice.